Wednesday, February 27, 2013

By Sarah Deetheintelhub.com
February 27, 2013
Regardless of the controversy that surrounds drone warfare use by the
U.S. abroad, technology in the field of drones, also called Unmanned
Arial Vehicles (UAV‘s) or Micro Air Vehicles (MAV‘s), is growing at a
rapid rate.
The government is already working to develop MAV’s that would mimic birds and insects in their size and movements.
These mini-drones that masquerade as creatures from the kingdom of
nature could be let loose on an urban center and within minutes set-up a
communication and surveillance network rivaling the most advanced its
human counter-parts could achieve in any spy movie. According to an article at The Daily Mail:

“The U.S. Air Force is developing tiny unmanned drones
that will fly in swarms, hover like bees, crawl like spiders and even
sneak up on unsuspecting targets and execute them with lethal precision.
The Air Vehicles Directorate, a research arm of the Air Force, has
released a computer-animated video outlining the the future capabilities
of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs). The project promises to revolutionize war
by down-sizing the combatants.
‘MAVs will become a vital element in the ever-changing war-fighting
environment and will help ensure success on the battlefield of the
future,’ the narrator intones. ‘Unobtrusive, pervasive, lethal – Micro
Air Vehicles, enhancing the capabilities of the future war fighter .’”

The project is fittingly seated at the Wright-Patterson Air Force
Base in Dayton, Ohio, where aviation pioneers, the Wright brothers,
originated.
But just as the Wright brothers and car magnate Henry Ford’s new
industries shut down out-dated technologies, new drone technology could
put fighter jets out of business. National Geographic reported that:

“The U.S. has deployed more than 11,000 military drones,
up from fewer than 200 in 2002.…Within a generation they could replace
most manned military aircraft, says John Pike, a defense expert at the
think tank GlobalSecurity.org.
Pike suspects that the F-35 Lightning II, now under development by
Lockheed Martin, might be “the last fighter with an ejector seat, and
might get converted into a drone itself .”

Fighter jets soon to be left in the junkyard with the horse-and-buggy, and granpaw’s old VCR? These times they are a’changin.The Role of the FAA
Apparently American skies could have been filled with UAV’s for years
now, but for the stringent rules imposed by the FAA keeping them out of
U.S. airspace.
There are only a few locations now nationally that allow UAV to fly
without direct human supervision, much to hobbyist and engineer’s
chagrin. One of these locations is in Costa Mesa County, Colorado, near
the now infamous Aurora, CO.
The National Geographic article also explained that:

“Miser is a former Air Force captain who worked on
military drones before quitting in 2007 to found his own company in
Aurora, Colorado. The Falcon has an eight-foot wingspan but weighs just
9.5 pounds.
Powered by an electric motor, it carries two swiveling cameras,
visible and infrared, and a GPS-guided autopilot. Sophisticated enough
that it can’t be exported without a U.S. government license, the Falcon
is roughly comparable, Miser says, to the Raven, a hand-launched
military drone–but much cheaper. He plans to sell two drones and support
equipment for about the price of a squad car.”
“A law signed by President Barack Obama in February 2012 directs the
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to throw American airspace wide
open to drones by September 30, 2015.
But for now Mesa County, with its empty skies, is one of only a few
jurisdictions with an FAA permit to fly one. The sheriff ’s office has a
three-foot-wide helicopter drone called a Draganflyer, which stays
aloft for just 20 minutes.”

Big Brother’s Watching: Constant Surveillance the Future Norm?
Though their use has been primarily military in recent years, but UAV
applications are endless and hungry inventors are ready for this
emerging market to take flight.
The National Geographic article continued:

“One of those entrepreneurs is Donald Smith, a bearish
former Navy aircraft technician with ginger hair and a goatee. His firm,
UA Vision, manufactures a delta-wing drone called the Spear.
Made of polystyrene foam wrapped in woven carbon fiber or other
fabrics, the Spear comes in several sizes; the smallest has a four-foot
wingspan and weighs less than four pounds.
It resembles a toy B-1 bomber. Smith sees it being used to keep track
of pets, livestock, wildlife, even Alzheimer’s patients–anything or
anyone equipped with radio-frequency identification tags that can be
read remotely.”